Waqf as An Alternative to Government Expenditure in Financing Autism Spectrum Disorder Children’s Cost:  Experience from Malaysia

Syahrina Hayati  Md Jani; Nor Tasik  Misbahrudin; Nurjannah  Salleh

The waqf is derived from Arabic roots verb ‘waqafah’ which means to stop or retrain. Waqf in Islamic law means; holding a certain asset and distribute only the usufruct for certain philanthropy. Waqf is defined by Islamic jurists as the holding of assets that are beneficial and physically lasting in order to be given as charity. Waqf assets and properties are prohibited from being used out of its specific objective. Waqf also can be defined as non-negotiable property dedicated to charitable purposes. Hence, in general waqf can be explained as dedication of some properties for certain philanthropy in the name of Allah S.W.T. Waqf is applied to non-perishable properties from which benefit and usufruct can be drawn without the property being consumed. The properties cannot be sold, transferred or inherited due to its perpetuity characteristics. Once the asset is declared as waqf, it will remain as waqf forever. It is a great opportunity if the waqf-based funding can help the parents of children with ASD to increase their financial support. Along with the rising of ASD children, the Malaysian government currently introducing a lot of initiatives to help the parents to get and receive early intervention and implementing various financial supports for them. This huge number of expenditures had concerned the government and despite the huge amount used by government, parents are reported to still been burden of financial stress in proper raised children with ASD. They usually have a variety of obligation expenditure to meet their unique needs such as special the treatment, therapy, medicine, education, and others. This obligation is continuously since there is no known cure for ASD. Parents of children with ASD children reported significantly less satisfaction with the assistance they have received since their child's diagnosis. About 93% of parents of children with ASD did not receive adequate financial support for their child's therapy. Moreover, parents should be given an alternative rather than sending their children to the general hospital, which is once a month therapy session, to other private children development centres that offer affordable and lower fees and more frequent sessions of therapy. Therefore, this study contributes to a better understanding of waqf as an alternative to help the parents of children with ASD and reduce the government expenditure.

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In-Text Citation: (Jani et al., 2022)
To Cite this Article: Jani, S. H. M., Misbahrudin, N. T., & Salleh, N. (2022). Waqf as An Alternative to Government Expenditure in Financing Autism Spectrum Disorder Children’s Cost: Experience in from Malaysia. International Journal of Academic Research in Business and Social Sciences, 12(2), 413–424.

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Waqf as An Alternative to Government Expenditure in Financing Autism Spectrum Disorder Children’s Cost: Experience from Malaysia

Syahrina Hayati Md Jani, Nor Tasik Misbahrudin, Nurjannah Salleh

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